FLUSHING, Michigan — If an ordinance is approved by the Flushing City Council, medical marijuana caregivers could be limited to a single stretch of Pierson Road to operate within the city.

Tim Beck, political director of Michigan Association of Compassion Centers, said it is disappointing to see Flushing officials potentially restricting caregivers in such an extreme way.

“It seems to me they are in violation of the spirit of the law,” Beck said. “It’s an unnecessary step to go that route.”

To require a caregiver to rent or buy property in the heavy commercial zoning area would make the entire situation financially impossible, Beck said. To provide for four or five patients would only be possible if operated out of the home, he said.

City Manager Dennis Bow and Flushing Police Chief Mark Hoornstra said restrictions of caregivers was thought out very carefully to prevent an increase of crime in residential areas, as well as potential fire hazards if caregivers operated out of their home.

Beck argued that in the more than two years the medical marijuana law has been in effect that there hasn’t been any kind of crime wave and the ordinance is just a sneaky way to put caregivers out of business.

“If they want to be safe they have full rights to ban dispensaries and hybrids (like compassion clubs),” Beck said. “They don’t have the right to ban patients and caregivers.”

Bow said, however, that was not the city’s intent. The city’s stand is that the providing of care giving is a commercial undertaking and should be kept out of residential areas and public places, he said. A qualified patient would be able to grow up to 12 marijuana plants in the home as long as it was in an enclosed, locked facility.

“We took a conservative approach to the law,” Bow said. “The way we have it set up is perfectly legal.”

The first reading of the ordinance will take place at the May 9 Flushing City Council meeting.